Age and gender gradient physical workload capacity and processing time-based assembly line worker assignment and balancing problem

This thesis investigates Assembly Line Worker Assignment and Balancing Problem (ALWABP), subject to different ages and gender, for minimizing number of stations. Worker physical workload capacity (PWLC) and task times that depend on the PWLC have been taken into consideration when workers are assigned to stations. Two quadratic functions are determined to adequately show age ? PWLC relationship for men and women, separately. Analyses included solutions of the ALWABP for three worker age categories and three different cycle times; in total, nine different assembly lines are balanced. 0-1 (binary) integer linear programming was used for solving the problem and results were achieved after the coding of the model in GAMS software program. Effectiveness of the proposed model is showed using the Jackson test problem.